The View from DownUnder Pt 1. '97
by Bob Gabri

Melbourne holds it's second Formula One and I decided to make it two
for two. Once is just not enough for this race fan and the lure of the
country is overwhelming.

To bring a few folks up to speed on this thing, last October I had my
travel agent start to look for a motel for me. After searching for two
weeks, she was not able to find a thing, including the places that
cost over $160 a night.

It was starting to look bad so I called a friend in Australia and
asked him if he could help me find a room. He called me back two weeks
later with good news. Not only had he found a place for me, but it
would be only $55 per night. Because it was the week of the race, he
had to pay for the cost of the room up front. This is great, my
friends have already reserved a room for me and all I have to do is
show up.

As usual, my plane ride is twenty four hours in length and I am unable
to sleep during this time. Knowing this ahead of time, I purchased a
laptop computer so that I can do some work during my non sleep
mode. Doing some financial work and writing this article on the plane
is a very good start.

In the middle of the night, I attempt some sleep. It only partly works
but I wake up with a pain in my knee.

Arriving at Melbourne Airport Tuesday morning was the usual hour long
wait going through immigration and customs. Another friend of mine
there picked me up at the airport and I was soon to discover that my
luggage had been damaged on the flight. Rather than take my luggage to
the motel, empty it and return, I decide to empty it into Doug's
trunk. I was promptly surprised to discover that my bottle of
sunscreen lotion was broken open and it's contents were spilled all
over the inside of my luggage. This on top of the constant ache that I
was getting from my knee.

After arriving in my apartment, my first order of business was a good
nap, much needed after being wide awake since Sunday. When I awoke at
10:00PM, it was time to unpack and clean up the mess from the
sunscreen lotion, including washing my backpack I use for corner
working. I scrubbed it with a bar of soap and my hairbrush.

With Wednesday's arrival, I was still experiencing the pain in my
knee, but now the swelling was getting greater and it was becoming
red.

With the recommendation of the medical staff at the Grand Prix, I went
to the emergency room at the nearest hospital to have my problem
looked at.

In no time at all I was in a horizontal position having people waiting
on me hand and foot. It was an infection in my knee that had started
on the plane, and because of the trauma of the flight, my immune
system failed to fight it off.

I had a very good doctor there and he realized that I really wanted to
be at the race. With this in mind, he gave me stronger doses of
antibiotics in the hope of getting me back on my feet sooner. I was
hoping that I could work at least one day of the race.

His plan worked and I was discharged on Thursday evening, missing only
one day of practice. I had no restrictions, other than to try to take
it easy and take my medicine for the next two weeks.

Because of missing Thursday's practice, I did not get my original
assigned sector, but one at a much more secluded location. It was on a
very slow part of the course with little or nothing happening in the
way of accidents and/or off course excursions.

We had the usual trackside inspections just before the Formula 1 cars
came out and everything was kept in tip top shape. Even the stones in
the gravel pits were freshly painted each night.

There was something always going on every minute there. If it wasn't
the cars on the track, it was Water Skiing, Hang Gliders, Para Sails,
Military fly bys, Sky Divers, or parades of Exotic and/or Vintage
cars.

 The Public Transit workers had been involved in negotiations with the
government for the past four months. Things didn't seem to be going
anywhere, so they called a strike which was to run for 48 hours,
starting at midnight Friday night. All spectators had been told in the
past that they had to take public transportation to the track because
there was no parking in the vicinity of Albert Park Lake. Now that the
strike was on, all trains, trams and public busses were not
running. The government quickly called in over 400 private busses to
try to get people back and forth to the race. This greatly affected
the turnout of the spectators and it was estimated that the attendance
was down about 30 percent from last year. From the corner where I
worked, I could see many bleachers with row after row of empty seats.

The Save Albert Park protesters were out again this year in full
force. A week before the race a bunch of them got onto the property
and poured diesel oil all over the track at sector 15, my post from
last year. At first it was thought that that section of the track
would have to be replaced, but a very thorough cleanup by the crews
saved the track and there was not a problem there after that.

When I got to the gate Tuesday afternoon to register, the protesters
were attempting to block the entrance. The police there did a good job
of keeping the gate open with only a couple of skirmishes before the
end of the day.

This was not the end of them. They held demonstrations constantly and
made a lot of noise for anyone who would look at them or take their
picture, the TV news crews ate this up.

On race day we were again warned about the possibility of them trying
to disrupt the start of the race. Besides having to watch the cars, we
had to keep an eye out for anyone trying to jump the fence and
interfere with the race.

About 15 minutes before the start of the race a flare was set off by a
protester somewhere. Now we had to watch for flares being tossed out
onto the track, and if so, to just kick them off into the gravel
traps.

That was the last incident that we heard off. Extra police were in
force and any incident that cropped up was just as quickly
squashed. No problem.

From my vantage point at an obscure point on the track, I saw very
little out of the ordinary. All cars made it around the corner in fine
shape and there was no passing or accidents where I was.

It wasn't until Saturday that Jacques Villeneuve was finally able to
capture the pole position. The previous two days it had changed hands
frequently. Damon Hill was driving his backup car, but I do not know
why.

Just before the start of the race, all cars made a final lap or two of
warm-up to make sure that everything was to their liking. Damon Hill
never completed his formation lap. Along the back part of the course
his car just came to a stop and he pulled off. It was later discovered
that his electronic throttle sensor had ceased to function and that
was the end of his day.

Everyone else was lined up and the race was off. Charging hard into
the first corner Eddie Ervine came up inside Jacques Villeneuve and
was going to fast to make the turn. He slid wide and forced Villeneuve
to the outside and into Johnny Herbert, sending both of them into the
gravel, and out of the race. Ervine continued, it wasn't his problem.

Villenueve's teammate, Heinz-Harald Frentzen, took over the lead, with
David Coulthard right behind him. Irvine went out of the race on the
next lap with a shredded left front tire, caused by his nose wing
cutting it. Now his problem.

Half way through the race Jean Alesi was told by his crew, both by
radio and hand signals, to pit for fuel. Trying to get just one more
lap, he ran out of fuel at the corner before the pit entrance and that
was the end of his day.

The lead changed a couple of times between Frentzen and David
Coulthard during the race depending on who had just pitted. At his
last pit stop, Frentzen took an unusually long time and dropped back
to third. He soon made his way back to second place. With three laps
to go, his left front rotor exploded just beyond the Start/Finish
Line, which caused him to spin into the gravel pit. End of what seemed
like a great day for him.

David Coulthard went on to win the race, a lot better showing than
last year's first lap incident which sent Martin Brundle's car into
the air. Of the twenty two cars that started this race, only nine
finished.

Oh, one more side note. When the doctor came to see me on my night of
admittance to the hospital, he said that when he released me I would
be on medication for approximately two weeks. I told him that one of
the reasons I came to Australia was to enjoy their fine beers. I asked
him if the medication I would be on would counteract with having a
beer in the evening. He said no, it wouldn't. A half hour latter my
nurse comes in and sets a bottle of Fosters on my table and says
"Doctor's Orders." The bloke in the bed next to me looks at the beer,
looks at me, and then looks at the nurse. He says "I want your
doctor." I like it here.

In next month's article I will tell you of my travels with my
Australian friends the week after the race. We see and do things not
done by the normal "tourists."